Laptop Suggestions

[el toro]

Hello fellow ubuntu-ers,
It´s about time for me to invest some of my hard-earned cash in a new, shiny laptop. I´ve been looking around for a bit and wanted to know if there were any specific suggestions you all had for a laptop--I have been eyeing the LUCGM2 (a custom-built, very portable laptop from Los Alamos Computers), which they´ll ship with Ubuntu--does anyone have any experience with the company and/or their products?
Thanks

[GrumpySmurf]

The only laptops I have any experience with are IBM Thinkpads (several models). I'm currently using a Thinkpad T41 which has worked extremely well with the following distributions:

Ubuntu Hoary (and Warty)
Fedora Core 3 (and RH Enterprise desktop 4.0)
SuSE 9.3 Professional
Yoper
Novell Linux Desktop 9
Knoppix LiveCD
Gentoo
Debian 3.0
Mandrake 10

The only issue I can recall with Ubuntu is that I had to use the ethernet network interface to connect and get the wireless driver (madwifi). Except for SuSE, the rest worked extremely well. Some didn't support the wireless, some didn't quite run X correctly, but in general this laptop has been an awesome system for running Linux.

The Thinkpad T41 I use is an Intel Centrino 1.6 ghz w/ 512M of RAM, 802.11g wifi, bluetooth, CDRW / DVD optical, and 80G hard drive. It is extremely light, low profile and has excellent (4-5 hour) battery life. Performance in Linux is outstanding, though my day to day work requires use of Windows due to application requirements (IE only web based tools, for example). Overall I have been pleased with this machine and I would strongly recommend it to anyone, obviously, since I'm doing so here :).

You may or may not be aware that IBM sold off its PC and laptop division to Lenovo. This should be a minor detail, the quality of the Thinkpad line is not expected to diminish under the new branding.

[somuchfortheafter]

toshiba tecras are by far the greatest laptops ever built, power and portability is a win win combination

[Arthemys]

So many laptop threads. ;)

IBM / Lenovo ThinkPads have just about the greatest support for linux that I've either seen or heard of. My fiance has a ThinkPad T42p that he runs solidly on, while I must wait for my ThinkPad R51 to arrive in the mail before I can linux'ify it.

I really can't wait because doing so is going to be the biggest change in computing for me in the longest time. Once the laptop is Ubuntu-tastic and comfy, then comes the desktop shortly after.

All in all, you might want to check out the Wiki pages for hardware compatibility.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/HardwareSupport

[poofyhairguy]

Don't think that a Laptop shipped with Ubuntu is very compatible with it. Look on the supported hardware list.

Especially this one

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/HoaryPMResults

Buy off that list.

[jerome bettis]

Hello fellow ubuntu-ers,
It´s about time for me to invest some of my hard-earned cash in a new, shiny laptop. I´ve been looking around for a bit and wanted to know if there were any specific suggestions you all had for a laptop--I have been eyeing the LUCGM2 (a custom-built, very portable laptop from Los Alamos Computers), which they´ll ship with Ubuntu--does anyone have any experience with the company and/or their products?
Thanks
i have that exact machine. it's great. extremely linux compatible. everything works. it's light, battery lasts about 3 hours, i can stretch it to about 3 and a half if i want to. plus it's surprisingly fast.

LAC is a great company too. i spilled water on my keyboard and they fixed it no questions asked. i just had to pay for shipping. if i would have bought one in a store i would have been out of luck. plus they've answered all of my questions pretty well.

any more specific questions about it just ask.

[jerome bettis]

Don't think that a Laptop shipped with Ubuntu is very compatible with it. Look on the supported hardware list.

Especially this one

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/HoaryPMResults

Buy off that list.
huh?

it's very compatible.

[ssam]

if you can find a titanium (not aluminim) G4 powerbook with an ati graphics card, they work very well with ubuntu.

i have the 1ghz 15inch. it has 60gb, 512mb, supported wireless, 64mb radeon 9000, dvd-r. it even sleeps when you close the lid and wakes when you open it :-)

similar machines around £500 on ebay.

[poofyhairguy]

if you can find a titanium (not aluminim) G4 powerbook with an ati graphics card, they work very well with ubuntu.
.

Only problem with that is that the wireless card (airport extreme) wont' work.

[ssam]

the titaniums have just normal airport, which works fine.

[Arthemys]

My $~1400 ThinkPad arrived the other day, and without any configuration I'd say it was about 90% functional. The only things that didn't were suspend to RAM, and the standard sound issue regarding ESD vs. ALSA. I have yet to test the 56k v.92 modem, for lack of need.

I think the only thing that annoys me is that I can't seem to tweak either mouse type to my liking. :P
IBM has equipped the R51 with both touchpad and their eraser style mouse. I might be too picky.

Aside from that, I'm impressed with the "out of box experience," excusing the term and not confusing it with OOBE.exe in WinXP. Hehe...

[BinaryDigit]

the titaniums have just normal airport, which works fine.
I have the Averatec 3200 notebook, it works great with Ubuntu :) I still need to configure the wireless, but I've read that it works great with ndiswrapper. The notebook is super light and thin, and has very good battery life (about 3 hours). I love Thinkpads as well, so that's always recommended from me.

http://www.averatec.com

[Arthemys]

I have the Averatec 3200 notebook, it works great with Ubuntu :) I still need to configure the wireless, but I've read that it works great with ndiswrapper. The notebook is super light and thin, and has very good battery life (about 3 hours). I love Thinkpads as well, so that's always recommended from me.

http://www.averatec.com
I'm currently getting roughly on average 4~4.5 hours of uptime on my ThinkPad with dual batteries.

One standard battery, and one slim-bay battery. It drains the smaller battery first, then the main one.

[NoTiG]

If your looking for a desktop replacement i would recommend the emachins 68XX . THey are currently very cheap right now because they have been bought out by gateways and are discontinued... but still have warranties.

You can get:

athlon 64 3200
ati mobility 9600 64mb
80 GB hard drive
DVD/cd writer
wifi
15.4 widescreen
512 MB ram

FOr like $850 .

THe battery life is only 2 hours.. so i wouldn't adise for ultra portability. BTW i recommend adding a 1gb stick of memory and a 7200 RPM hard drive to this baby. and here is a guide i wrote if you ever want one: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=34904&highlight=emachines

[somuchfortheafter]

but the ati linux drivers are well,,, can i say **** if so,, thats what they are